Today, President Joe Biden released the 2024 United States Government Global Health Security Strategy, outlining the nation's whole of government approach to strengthening global health security to protect American lives and livelihoods by improving U.S. and other countries' capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks at their source.
Infectious disease threats do not respect national borders. The United States' national security and prosperity depend on all countries being prepared to rapidly prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats.
The 2024 GHSS continues to highlight the importance of multisectoral collaboration to strengthen pandemic preparedness at home and abroad. The department has long recognized that health security threats not only impact force readiness directly but also have destabilizing second and third-order effects. The Department of Defense is participating in global health security efforts by promoting civil-military and military-military coordination to strengthen health security nationally, regionally, and globally.
"Working to support U.S. ally and partner health security capacity directly promotes global stability, builds and maintains key partnerships, and promotes the readiness and interoperability of DOD personnel and our allies and partners," says Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Johnson.
The 2024 GHSS supports improved interagency coordination, enabling an integrated approach to deter health security threats and to build and sustain critical partnerships. In support of lead U.S. federal departments and agencies, the Department of Defense is committed to working to improve ally and partner nation capacity to prevent threats, detect threats as soon as they emerge, contain those threats at their source, and respond effectively to outbreaks and pandemics to save lives, decrease illness, protect economies, and preserve national security.
The 2024 GHSS complements the Department of Defense 2023 Biodefense Posture Review, which initiated key reforms to posture the DOD to counter biothreats through 2035.
"The outcomes of the review deliver a more empowered, collaborative, and integrated approach to biodefense, and prepares the department to face future biological threats and respond rapidly to bio incidents," said Johnson.
DOD responds to bio incidents through deliberate collaboration with other U.S. departments and agencies, as well as allies and partners, working collectively to understand the threat, enhance the preparation and the protection of the force, and quickly respond to and mitigate the effect of bio incidents.
