NTI | bio Focuses on High-Consequence, Deliberate, and Global Catastrophic Biological Risks During World Health Assembly Side Event

On May 22, NTI experts Beth Cameron and Michelle Nalabandian
joined government officials and experts from around the world in
Geneva at the 72^nd World Health Assembly (WHA), where NTI
co-organized
a side event on preventing future high-consequence biological events.

The breakfast event, “Ebola, Pandemics, and Biological
Weapons,” was held in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health
Security, the Georgetown University
Center for Global Health Science and Security, and the Future of Humanity Institute. It brought
together global experts for a complex and provocative discussion on the
following three scenarios that demonstrate the increasing risk of a
high-consequence biological event:

• Regional instability fueling a disease outbreak, as with the
  ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Gaps in international architecture and response capacity,
  particularly for deliberate biological events, as exercised during the 2019 Tabletop Exercise on Deliberate
  Biological Events
  co-organized by NTI at the Munich Security Conference in February, 2019.
• Advances in technology that could significantly facilitate the
  development and use of a high-consequence biological weapon, including by
  powerful actors, as highlighted during the November 2018 Wilton Park meeting on
  Powerful Actor, High Impact Bio Threats, also co-organized by NTI.

The panel speakers included:

• Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director
  General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control;
• Dr. Chris Elias, President of the
  Global Development Division, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation;
• Dr. Sylvie Briand, Director of
  Pandemic & Epidemic Diseases Department, World Health Organization;
• Dr. Tim Evans, Senior Director,
  Health, Nutrition & Population, World Bank Group;
• Dr. Beth Cameron, Vice President,
  Global Biological Policy and Programs, NTI; and
• Dr. Nancy Connell, Senior Scholar,
  Visiting Professor, Johns Hopkins Center for Health (moderator).

Panelists spoke candidly about their national, regional, and
global perspectives on these scenarios, as well as recommendations for ways to
prevent and deter catastrophic biological risks, including deliberate events,
of the future.

Learn more about the work of NTI’s Global Biological Policy
and Programs team here.