{"id":17342,"date":"2021-04-09T13:05:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T13:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/04\/09\/after-covid-are-billions-in-biodefense-needed-to-deter-adversaries\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:39:17","slug":"after-covid-are-billions-in-biodefense-needed-to-deter-adversaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2021\/04\/09\/after-covid-are-billions-in-biodefense-needed-to-deter-adversaries\/","title":{"rendered":"After COVID, are billions in biodefense funds needed to deter US adversaries?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Defense Department should dramatically increase its funding for biological defense initiatives<\/a> in order to deter other nations from seeking to exploit America\u2019s perceived vulnerability to a medical crisis according to a new report<\/a> from the Council on Strategic Risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon\u2019s hub for biological defense is the Chemical and Biological Defense Program (CBDP), which is charged with the development of medicines and technologies to defense the military from biological threats. CBDP has played a significant role in creating solutions for anthrax and Ebola, among other dangers. Funding for the agency peaked in 2006 at $2.2 billion, but has now dropped to less than $1.4 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report calls for doubling the agency\u2019s funding \u201cto at least $2 billion in the next year,\u201d followed by increasing it to a range of $6.5 billion to $7 billion annually in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That $7 billion figure would be less than 1 percent of the total defense spending expected to be included in President Joe Biden\u2019s FY22 budget request, but still represents sizeable dollars that would need to be taken from other programs at a time that the department is already struggling to find savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\t