Like many U.S. research and development agencies, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) was forced to shift priorities almost overnight due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From the start, researchers at S&T’s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) have raced against the clock to learn as much as possible about the coronavirus so that our nation is better armed to fight, control and defeat the deadly COVID-19 disease.
We asked NBACC researchers: when faced with the challenge of a lifetime, where do you start? Here’s what they told us.
Go back to the basics, starting with anthrax
NBACC, the first DHS national laboratory, was established in the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks to conduct research specifically on bioterrorist threats that endanger our homeland security.
“We were starting from a place where there were a lot of gaps in our understanding about anthrax when those attacks happened,” said Dr. Lloyd Hough, who leads S&T’s Hazard Awareness and Characterization Technology Center (HAC-TC). The HAC-TC provides technical support and guidance for the S&T program Probabilistic Analysis for National Threats Hazards and Risks (PANTHR) and S&T’s labs, including NBACC. “We learned quickly how to fill those gaps and how to prioritize the research. We needed to determine the infectious dose, how long the anthrax was stable as a powder in indoor environments. All those experiments and lessons taught us approaches we use when we evaluate emerging biological hazards today, like SARS-CoV-2.”
The lab is what’s known as ‘hot’, meaning it is equipped for the highest Biosafety Levels (BSL) for work with highly dangerous microscopic organisms. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the bacteria that caused the plague, and the West Nile virus are all studied in BSL-3 laboratories; the anthrax bacteria and the Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic viruses are handled in BSL-4 laboratories.
“For known agents like the bacteria that cause anthrax or plague, we do studies from a biodefense perspective,” said Dr. Victoria Wahl, Deputy Director of NBACC’s National Biological Threat Characterization Center. “And for something brand new like SARS-CoV-2, we are studying the basics like how stable the virus is in the air, how it can be transmitted. The same unique capabilities NBACC has established for biodefense research can also be applied to a new agent like SARS-CoV-2 to help us understand it better.”
Lessons learned from Ebola and the flu help inform present-day crisis response
Risk assessment helped S&T identify not only anthrax bacteria for in-depth study but also other disease-causing organisms like the Ebola virus.
“S&T’s risk assessment activities, conducted through the PANTHR program, consider the risk posed by a variety of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents that could potentially be used by terrorists to harm the U.S.,” said Hough. “They also look at the factors that affect risk: how likely an adversary would be to try a certain type of attack, its impact, and the nation’s ability to mitigate such an event with antibiotics and vaccines or other measures.”
During the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, S&T was flooded with safety-related questions from across DHS components and other federal agencies:
Should a product from the outbreak area be allowed to be imported to the U.S.?
Can an airport fingerprint reader be potentially contaminated by an infected passenger?
How do we respond if somebody gets sick on an international flight?
How long does infectious Ebola virus survive when an infected person’s bodily fluids (e.g., blood, vomit, saliva, feces) contaminate certain surfaces like stainless steel, polypropylene plastic, and airline carpeting?
What disinfectants are effective at killing the virus in those cases?
In response, S&T first developed a Master Question List…