HERE COME THE DEEP STATE CONSPIRACIES
Tim Newcomb
Wed, August 9, 2023
‘Disease X’ Now a Security and Diplomacy Concern
Wed, August 9, 2023
‘Disease X’ Now a Security and Diplomacy Concern
Jose A. Bernat Bacete - Getty Images
The U.S. State Department has created the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy to respond to infectious diseases.
Battling HIV/AIDS will be a top priority, but the bureau will also focus on other health threats, including preventing pandemics.
Health security is now a component of U.S. national security and foreign policy.
The latest United States government agency aims to protect the country against outside health threats. As this is now deemed a national security issue, it’s a State Department mission to make it happen.
The State Department launched the new Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy with the “overarching mission” of fortifying global health security architecture. The aim is to prevent, detect, control, and respond to infectious diseases. This is all part of a plan to integrate “global health security as a core component of U.S. national security and foreign policy,” according to a statement from Antony Blinken, Secretary of State.
“By leveraging and coordinating U.S. foreign assistance, the bureau aims to foster robust international cooperation,” he said, “enhancing protection for the United States and the global community against health threats through strengthened systems and policies. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the vital role the United States must play in addressing global health and health security issues.”
John Nkengason, the Biden administration’s global AIDS coordinator, will lead the bureau focusing on both HIV/AIDS and unknown potential threats—referred to as Disease X.
“We need to be more intentional and really consider global health security as national security,” Nkengason told NPR. Citing the lives and dollars lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, he says there’s a global need to strengthen disease surveillance systems, reenforce supply chain management systems, and decentralize production of health security commodities.
As Nkengason told PBS, the recent pandemic taught us “that a threat anywhere in the world is a threat everywhere in the world.” He noted that it took only 20 days for COVID-19 to spread to 66 countries after first being recognized in China.
The goal of the new bureau is to elevate diplomacy in order to help countries coordinate to address disease threats, advance health security as part of foreign policy, and coordinate domestic efforts as a tool in responding to disease outbreaks.
“When disease[s] emerge,” he said, “they move very quickly.”
Nkengason currently leads the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), started by then-president George W. Bush in 2003. That program is scheduled to end this fall and hasn’t been extended, so some of the work there—Nkengason told NPR that the program has saved 25 million lives and prevented the transmission of HIV/AIDS to 5.5 million children—could transfer to the new bureau if not renewed.
No matter the future of PEPFAR, the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy is tasked with crafting a diplomacy and security plan to handle infectious disease, including Disease X.
“We are in an era,” Nkengason told NPR, “that we cannot plan only for the disease that we have—that we should plan for the long haul.”
The U.S. State Department has created the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy to respond to infectious diseases.
Battling HIV/AIDS will be a top priority, but the bureau will also focus on other health threats, including preventing pandemics.
Health security is now a component of U.S. national security and foreign policy.
The latest United States government agency aims to protect the country against outside health threats. As this is now deemed a national security issue, it’s a State Department mission to make it happen.
The State Department launched the new Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy with the “overarching mission” of fortifying global health security architecture. The aim is to prevent, detect, control, and respond to infectious diseases. This is all part of a plan to integrate “global health security as a core component of U.S. national security and foreign policy,” according to a statement from Antony Blinken, Secretary of State.
“By leveraging and coordinating U.S. foreign assistance, the bureau aims to foster robust international cooperation,” he said, “enhancing protection for the United States and the global community against health threats through strengthened systems and policies. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the vital role the United States must play in addressing global health and health security issues.”
John Nkengason, the Biden administration’s global AIDS coordinator, will lead the bureau focusing on both HIV/AIDS and unknown potential threats—referred to as Disease X.
“We need to be more intentional and really consider global health security as national security,” Nkengason told NPR. Citing the lives and dollars lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, he says there’s a global need to strengthen disease surveillance systems, reenforce supply chain management systems, and decentralize production of health security commodities.
As Nkengason told PBS, the recent pandemic taught us “that a threat anywhere in the world is a threat everywhere in the world.” He noted that it took only 20 days for COVID-19 to spread to 66 countries after first being recognized in China.
The goal of the new bureau is to elevate diplomacy in order to help countries coordinate to address disease threats, advance health security as part of foreign policy, and coordinate domestic efforts as a tool in responding to disease outbreaks.
“When disease[s] emerge,” he said, “they move very quickly.”
Nkengason currently leads the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), started by then-president George W. Bush in 2003. That program is scheduled to end this fall and hasn’t been extended, so some of the work there—Nkengason told NPR that the program has saved 25 million lives and prevented the transmission of HIV/AIDS to 5.5 million children—could transfer to the new bureau if not renewed.
No matter the future of PEPFAR, the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy is tasked with crafting a diplomacy and security plan to handle infectious disease, including Disease X.
“We are in an era,” Nkengason told NPR, “that we cannot plan only for the disease that we have—that we should plan for the long haul.”
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