Experts from the WMD Center offer insights and opinions related to COVID-19.

A service member prepares a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Feb. 4, 2021. J

INSS Strategic Insights | Aug. 18, 2021

Taking Stock of the National Stockpile: Modernizing for a Dynamic Response

Diane DiEuliis & Patrick Terrell

Many have acknowledged that the COVID19 pandemic was not a failure of our imagination – we’ve been preparing for such an event for decades by building biotechnologies for biosurveillance and medicines, conducting exercises, and stockpiling of medical supplies – furthermore, response to a spreading illness in many ways is not rocket science: treat the sick, protect the vulnerable, and stop the spread – mainly accomplished via the tools and products of biotechnology. Many are now asking, what could we have done better in the pandemic response?

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WOTR

War on the Rocks | June 7, 2021

The Origin of Covid-19 and Preventing The Next Pandemic

Amanda Moodie and Nicholas Evans

In a recent article in War on the Rocks, Ms. Amanda Moodie and Dr. Nicholas Evans explore how U.S. policy priorities should focus on both identifying and preventing the spread of zoonotic pathogens and bolstering safety and security in high-containment laboratories.

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Charles Deluvio

Inkstick | April 7, 2021

A Year Of Working Intentionally

Sarah Jacobs Gamberini

In the second article in Inkstick's series on The Future of National Security Work, CSWMD's Sarah Jacobs Gamberini pens a personal essay on the unexpected benefits of pandemic telework as a working mom in the defense world.

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Biomedical specialist Mamadou Dialio at work in the Cedars-Sinai Biomanufacturing Center.

Strategic Insights | March 11, 2021

Want to Grow the Economy? Try Fermenting It Instead

Peter Emanuel Ph.D., Brian Feeney Ph.D. and Diane DiEuliis Ph.D.

U.S. industry’s distribution system and supply chains were vulnerable before COVID, but pandemic-related disruptions to supply chains fully exposed this already alarming problem. U.S. manufacturers have relied too heavily on foreign materials for production, and the steady off-shoring of critical industries over a course of decades has reduced direct control of vital defense-related manufacturing should it be needed.

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Senior Airman Elijah Thompkins, 75th Medical Group, hands a prescription over to a beneficiary March 23, 2020, at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The 75th Medical Group Satellite Pharmacy is providing curbside service until further notice in front of the Base Exchange shopping center in support of social distancing recommendations and to increase efforts to mitigate further spread of the novel coronavirus.(U.S. Air Force photo by Cynthia Griggs)

OxPol: The Oxford University Politics Blog | June 24, 2020

The Health-Security Nexus: Reassessing Priorities after COVID-19

Nima Gerami and Amanda Moodie

While Covid-19 has spurred debate about the need to elevate public health as a security concern, the securitisation of health presents both opportunities and trade-offs that need to be considered if we are to reallocate military spending to prepare for the next pandemic. Mr. Nima Gerami and Ms. Amanda Moodie address these issues in their latest for The Oxford University Politics Blog.

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COVID Test

Inkstick | May 7, 2020

Governing a Pandemic

Sarah Jacobs Gamberini and Amanda Moodie

In their article in Inkstick, Ms. Sarah Jacobs Gamberini and Ms. Amanda Moodie examine China's authoritarian approach to COVID-19 in the context of great power competition.

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Policemen in Seattle wearing masks made by the Red Cross at the time of the Spanish flu outbreak, December 1918. (Culver Pictures via Washington State Archives)

Strategic Insights | April 27, 2020

Beyond 1918: Bringing Pandemic Response into the Present, and Future

Diane DiEuliis, Peter Emanuel, Alexander Titus, and James Giordano

The current pandemic gives us an opportunity to envision new tools, methods, and response policies that leverage emerging technologies, which, if adopted and prudently employed, would enable capability to far better predict, prepare, if not prevent the “next” biosecurity war, and not merely repeat the errors of the “last”. 

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A scientist presents an antibody test for coronavirus in a laboratory of the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) at the InfectoGnostics research campus in Jena, Germany, Friday, April 3, 2020. An international team of researchers with the participation of the Jena Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) has developed a rapid antibody test for the new coronavirus. By means of a blood sample, the test shows within ten minutes whether a person is acutely infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus (IgM antibody) or already immune to it (IgG antibody). The strip test is manufactured by the diagnostics company Senova in Weimar and is already on the market. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

Strategic Insights | April 13, 2020

Ready or Not: Regaining Military Readiness during COVID19

Diane DiEuliis and Laura Junor

In the latest Institute for National Strategic Studies "Strategic Insight," Dr. Diane DiEuliis and Dr. Laura Junor examine what the Department of Defense needs to maintain force readiness during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Force readiness and management will be improved by rapidly deploying a point of care serological test to all in the U.S. military.

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CSWMD

War on the Rocks | April 6, 2020

The Virus Of Disinformation: Echoes Of Past Bioweapons Accusations In Today’s Covid-19 Conspiracy Theories

Sarah Jacobs Gamberini and Amanda Moodie

In their latest for War on the Rocks, Ms. Sarah Jacobs Gamberini and Ms. Amanda Moodie examine the similarities between current Covid-19 related disinformation campaigns and biological influence operations conducted during the Cold War.

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CSWMD

Medium | April 2, 2020

Modernizing biotechnology for the fight against COVID-19 and the future of pandemic response

Alexander Titus, Michelle Rozo, and Diane DiEuliis

Alexander Titus, Michelle Rozo, and Diane DiEuliis provide some perspective on the importance of using advanced biotechnology capabilities during the global pandemic.

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CSWMD

Inkstick | March 25, 2020

Infodemic

Justin Anderson and Sarah Jacobs Gamberini

In their article in Inkstick, Dr. Justin Anderson and Ms. Sarah Jacobs Gamberini examine the daunting challenge of attempting to halt the spread of misinformation (erroneous information) and disinformation (deliberately false information) about the coronavirus (COVID-19).

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