| Abbreviation | CHS |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1998; 28 years ago (1998)[1] |
| Founder | D. A. Henderson[1] |
| Type | Think tank |
| Location | |
Director | Tom Inglesby, MD[2] |
Deputy Director | Anita Cicero, JD[3] |
Key people | Tara O'Toole Caitlin Rivers Tara Kirk Crystal Watson Alexandra Phelan Jassi Pannu |
| Affiliations | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health |
| Website | www |
Formerly called |
|
TheJohns Hopkins Center for Health Security (abbreviatedCHS) is an independent,nonprofit organization ofJohns Hopkins University and theJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The Center works to prevent and prepare for epidemics, pandemics and other health disasters. The Center is also concerned with biological weapons prevention and the biosecurity implications of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence[4] and synthetic biology.
The Center is designated an official Collaborating Centre of theWorld Health Organization and thePan American Health Organization;[5] it provides policy recommendations to governments worldwide including theUnited States Government, theEuropean Union, and the United NationsBiological Weapons Convention.[6]
The Center for Health Security was founded in 1998 byD. A. Henderson, the physician who led the successful WHOsmallpox eradication campaign. It was originally named the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies (CCBS).[7] At that time, the center was the first and only academic center focused on biosecurity policy and practice.[citation needed] Henderson became aware of the Soviet Union's offensive biological weapons program in 1989, which was in direct defiance of the 1972Biological Weapons Convention multilateral disarmament treaty.[8] Routine vaccination against smallpox ended globally in 1980, meaning the use of smallpox as a biological weapon would have catastrophic consequences.
In 1998, the Center was established with a founding team of Dr.Tara O'Toole, Dr.Tom Inglesby, and Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana, with the goal of rigorous research and advocacy to counter bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases such as pandemic influenza, HIV, and monkeypox. One of their first proposals to theUnited States Government was to procure 40 million doses of stockpiled smallpox vaccine, which was supported by PresidentBill Clinton.[8]
In June 2001, the Center hosted a tabletop exercise namedDark Winter in collaboration with theCenter for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Homeland Security Institute (ANSER), and the Oklahoma Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism.[8]Dark Winter drew an analogy with the destructive power of a nuclear explosion, but instead focused on the catastrophic consequences of an deliberate, weaponized smallpox epidemic.Dark Winter was the first biological weapons tabletop exercise of its kind; media coverage was extensive and six subsequent congressional hearings were held.[8]
TheSeptember 11 attacks by terrorists on the United States prompted further fear of a biological weapons attack. Subsequent attacks via letters laced withanthrax spores. In preparation for possible follow-on attacks, the Center uncovered that much of the smallpox vaccine stockpile in the US had expired, ultimately prompting then HHS SecretaryTommy Thompson to commit to stockpiling a dose of smallpox vaccine for every person in America. For this purpose, $3 billion was appropriated by Congress.[8] Secretary Thompson requested Henderson assume responsibility for the Office of Public Health Preparedness (later the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response); O'Toole and Inglesby assumed leadership of the Center and renamed it the Center for Biosecurity. In 2003 it came under the aegis of the University of Pittsburgh.[9]
On January 14, 2005, the Center organized a table-top exercise for senior political leaders from Europe, Canada, and the United States. It was supported by theAlfred P. Sloan Foundation, and theNuclear Threat Initiative. The former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Director General of the WHO and Prime Minister of Norway Dr. Gro Brundtland, were among those that participated.[8]
In January 2017, the Center returned to theJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health under its current name, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.[10]
The Center was established in 1998 with 1 year of funding from theUnited States Department of Health and Human Services.[8] In 2000, the Center began receiving funding from theAlfred P. Sloan Foundation,[8] as well as grants from the US federal government.[11]
In January 2017,Coefficient Giving (formerly the Open Philanthropy Project) awarded a $16 million grant over three years to the Center for Health Security;[12][13] this was renewed for $20 million in 2019 and $10 million in 2023.[14]
In 2023 the Center was awarded $23.5 million from the USCenters for Disease Control and Prevention for epidemic preparedness.[15]
The Center for Health Security publishes the newsletter:
It previously published theClinicians' Biosecurity News (formerly theClinicians' Biosecurity Network Report),[16] andHealth Security Headlines (previously calledBiosecurity Briefing,[17][18][19]Health Security Headlines,[20][21] andPreparedness Pulsepoints.[22]
It maintains and edits the peer-reviewed journalHealth Security[23] which was launched in 2003 and calledBiosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science until 2015.[24]
CHS published theblogThe Bifurcated Needle until 2020.[25]
The center has published in journals includingScience,Nature,JAMA andThe Lancet. A full list of publications is available on the CHS website. As of February 2017[update], the list shows more than 400 publications.[26]
Additional publications:
From June 22–23, 2001, CHS co-hostedOperation Dark Winter, a senior-level bioterrorism attack simulation involving a covert and widespread smallpox attack on the United States.
On January 14, 2005, CHS helped to hostAtlantic Storm, a table-topsmallpoxbioterrorism simulation.
On May 15, 2018, the Center hosted Clade X,[27] a day-long pandemic tabletop exercise that simulated a series of National Security Council–convened meetings of 10 US government leaders, played by individuals prominent in the fields of national security or epidemic response.
Drawing from actual events, Clade X identified important policy issues and preparedness challenges that could be solved with sufficient political will and attention. These issues were designed in a narrative to engage and educate the participants and the audience.
Clade X was livestreamed on Facebook and extensive materials from the exercise are available online.[28][29]
On October 18, 2019, the CHS partnered with theWorld Economic Forum and theBill and Melinda Gates Foundation to host the tabletop exercise Event 201 inNew York City.[30][31] According to the CHS, "the exercise illustrated areas where public/private partnerships will be necessary during the response to a severepandemic in order to diminish large-scale economic and societal consequences".[30]
Event 201 simulated the effects of a fictionalcoronavirus passing to humans via infectedpig farms inBrazil with "no possibility of avaccine being available in the first year".[32] The simulation ended after 18 months and projected 65 million deaths from the coronavirus.[32]
A series ofTrack II multilateral dialogues cohosted by the Center in the Southeast Asia region ultimately helped to establish theAsia Centre for Health Security.[33]
Since 2023, the Center has worked extensively on the convergence of artificial intelligence and biotechnology, establishing the shorthand AIxBio within this field.[34]
On November 29, 2023 the Center hosted a convening to discuss pandemic-level biosecurity threats that may arise from artificial intelligence, attended by representatives from theUnited States National Security Council,United States Department of Energy, White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, United KingdomCabinet Office,OpenAI,Anthropic,Microsoft,Meta,Google DeepMind,Amazon,RAND, and others.[35]
The Center has provided policy recommendations to governments andAI Safety Institutes globally regarding several issues at the intersection of artificial intelligence and biosecurity, including biological data governance, open source models, export controls, risk assessment, model evaluations, and safeguards.[36]
He was Dean Emeritus and Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a Founding Director (1998) of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies.
the four full-time faculty members and 16 administrative staff members of the CCBS are all leaving Hopkins to join the UPMC.
the Center for Health Security, which had previously been affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), has joined the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Health Security has been awarded a three-year, $16 million grant to support work on strengthening health security and public health preparedness.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Biosecurity News Today
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Journal: The Center provides editorial oversight for the peer-reviewed journal, Health Security, which is published 6 times per year.
| Schools |  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buildings | |||||
| History | |||||
| Publications | |||||
| Athletics |
| ||||
| Student life | |||||
| Related | |||||
