Reengineering Life
A Bold Plan Says the U.S. Can End Pandemic Threats by 2030
An ‘Apollo Program’ could protect the population from man-made and natural biological threats
Reengineering Life is a column from Future Human about the ways humans are using biology to reprogram our bodies and the world around us.
In 2015, a report by a group called the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, made up of former members of Congress and past government appointees, warned that the United States was not prepared for a biological threat. The Covid-19 pandemic has confirmed that grim prediction. Already, more than 400,000 Americans have died, and one model predicts that deaths could surge to 630,000 or more by June. Vaccines could help end the current pandemic, but even then there will be other infectious threats to contend with.
The group, established in 2014, recently called the Covid-19 pandemic a “wake-up call for the United States to take biological threats seriously.” Co-chaired by former Sen. Joe Lieberman and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, the commission argues that we need to beef up our defenses against man-made pathogens in addition to naturally occurring ones.
