Founding The Center for Health Security was founded in 1998 by
D. A. Henderson, the physician who led the successful WHO
smallpox eradication campaign. It was originally named the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies (CCBS). At that time, the center was the first and only academic center focused on biosecurity policy and practice. Henderson became aware of the Soviet Union's offensive biological weapons program in 1989, which was in direct defiance of the 1972
Biological Weapons Convention multilateral disarmament treaty. Routine vaccination against smallpox ended globally in 1980, meaning the use of smallpox as a biological weapon would have catastrophic consequences. In 1998, the Center was established with a founding team of Dr.
Tara O'Toole, Dr.
Tom Inglesby, and Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana, with the goal of rigorous research and advocacy to counter bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases such as pandemic influenza, HIV, and monkeypox. One of their first proposals to the
United States Government was to procure 40 million doses of stockpiled smallpox vaccine, which was supported by President
Bill Clinton.
Operation Dark Winter In June 2001, the Center hosted a tabletop exercise named
Dark Winter in collaboration with the
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Homeland Security Institute (ANSER), and the Oklahoma Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism.
Dark Winter drew an analogy with the destructive power of a nuclear explosion, but instead focused on the catastrophic consequences of an deliberate, weaponized smallpox epidemic.
Dark Winter was the first biological weapons tabletop exercise of its kind; media coverage was extensive and six subsequent congressional hearings were held.
Smallpox vaccine stockpiling The
September 11 attacks by terrorists on the United States prompted further fear of a biological weapons attack. Subsequent attacks via letters laced with
anthrax spores. In preparation for possible follow-on attacks, the Center uncovered that much of the smallpox vaccine stockpile in the US had expired, ultimately prompting then HHS Secretary
Tommy Thompson to commit to stockpiling a dose of smallpox vaccine for every person in America. For this purpose, $3 billion was appropriated by Congress. Secretary Thompson requested Henderson assume responsibility for the Office of Public Health Preparedness (later the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response); O'Toole and Inglesby assumed leadership of the Center and renamed it the Center for Biosecurity. In 2003 it came under the aegis of the University of Pittsburgh.
Atlantic storm On January 14, 2005, the Center organized a table-top exercise for senior political leaders from Europe, Canada, and the United States. It was supported by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the
Nuclear Threat Initiative. The former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Director General of the WHO and Prime Minister of Norway Dr. Gro Brundtland, were among those that participated.
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health In January 2017, the Center returned to the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health under its current name, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. ==Funding==