ABSTRACT
The Center for Biosecurity is an independent, nonprofit organization of UPMC whose formal mission is 'to strengthen national security by reducing the risks posed by biological attacks, epidemics, and other destabilizing events and to improve the nation's resilience'. The Biodefense Center was founded in 1998 by D. A. Henderson, the former dean of the JHU School of Public Health, and the former head of the World Health Organization's Smallpox Eradication Campaign. Public health, like anthropology, has had strenuous public debates about the potential pitfalls of engaging with the security sector. Among the principal concerns are the possibility for distortions in public funding, with resources siphoned away from health and social welfare toward military and national security purposes. Some public health leaders, notably from within state and local health departments, have embraced the opportunity to develop new capabilities and to shore up a woefully neglected public health infrastructure.
